Report Ti19

Correctional facilities

Description:

Directs the executive branch to consider the undeveloped portion on the existing Halawa Correctional Facility as one of the possible sites for replacing the Oahu Community Correctional Center. (HB298 CD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

298

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

H.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

S.D. 2


C.D. 1

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State can no longer afford to postpone the construction of correctional facilities. As overcrowding continues, the State is placed in a vulnerable position of being subject to charges of civil rights violations and to security risks.

Since 1995, the department of public safety has been transporting prisoners to facilities in Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Minnesota, Arizona, and Tennessee. Although this is a temporary solution until adequate facilities are built, the State cannot afford to transport inmates to mainland facilities indefinitely.

Out-of-state placements cost approximately $24,400,000 per year, or $56 per prisoner per day for care, custody, transportation, inmate compensation, and health care. This arrangement has not been problem-free. For example, at the mainland facilities, there have been allegations of sexual assault of female prisoners, denial of timely medical treatment, and civil rights violations.

The legislature further finds that it is in the public interest of the people of Hawaii that a new correctional facility be designed and built. One of the sites the legislature would like to have considered is the undeveloped portion on the site of the Halawa correctional facility to replace the Oahu community correctional center (OCCC).

The purpose of this Act is to direct the executive branch to initiate the process to develop a correctional facility on the undeveloped portion on the site of the Halawa correctional facility to replace OCCC.

SECTION 2. (a) The executive branch is directed to initiate the process to develop the undeveloped portion on the site of the Halawa correctional facility for a new correctional facility. The development process shall include:

(1) Soil tests to ensure the ability of the site to support such a facility; and

(2) Negotiations with any qualified private entity for the development of a private, in-state correctional facility to replace the Oahu community correctional center.

(b) This Act shall not be construed to prohibit the governor from negotiating or contracting with any person for the development of other in-state correctional facilities pursuant to sections 353-16.35 and 353-16.36, Hawaii Revised Statutes. (c) The development of an in-state correctional facility required by this Act shall commence no later than June 30, 2008.

(d) The executive branch is further directed to initiate the preparation of a feasibility and planning study for the future use, disposition, or development of the existing Oahu community correctional center site. This feasibility and planning study shall include the opportunity for public review and comment by the surrounding community, prior to its completion.

SECTION 3. The governor shall report to the legislature on the progress of the negotiations and the development of an in-state correctional facility no later than twenty days before the convening of the regular sessions of 2004 to 2009.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.